Another Mississippi Question

I have never been on the Miss. River. My question is. Does it have dykes to look for like the Mo river? What do I look out for when under power? I hope to get a chance to go out next week. Any info is appreciated.

I have never been on the Miss. River. My question is. Does it have dykes to look for like the Mo river? What do I look out for when under power? I hope to get a chance to go out next week. Any info is appreciated.

Thanks Tom

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Hey Tom, The Miss. river does have dikes here and there... Not as many as the Mo. river but you will find some...... You might wanta keep an eye out for Barges....Moving and station.. Go luck on your first trip on the Miss.... Might take you a while to adjust, but you should do fine

Tom, do you want the truth? Please don't be offended, I'm not writing to offend.
The Missouri River is no where near the same as the Mississippi. This thing can jump out and bite real bad. I would suggest your first few trips out to be with someone who knows the river well. They would be able to help you learn that particular stretch of water. Most of the danger cannot be seen above the surface. Current is not at fast as the Missouri, but extremely dangerous for it's undertows. I visited with three brothers fishing from the bank @ Chain of Rocks low water dam. A couple of weeks later the were fishing again there and the one brother standing between the other two, slipped on a rock and fell in. They said he never came up to the surface even one time. He was a strong swimmer too. Almost every trip out in my boat or others, I have at least a few times felt the entire boat picked up and moved sideways several feet. This is at over 25+ mph on plane.
I don't mean to sound like I am preaching to ya. For all I know, you may very well be 100 times better in a boat than I. This is just coming from many times taking folks out on the river, who have been on the Missouri, but not the Mississippi, before. To the person, they were amazed at the power this river has.

One of the reasons for this captain to have several rules that must be obeyed when riding in The Kutters Katter. No exceptions! The first and main rule is if the boat is moving, vest must be actually worn. Holding one in your hand aint good enough. My boat, my rules. LOL

There are many sand bars and shallow flats also. You must learn to read the day markers and bouys so that you know where the channel is. Run the channel and then take your time to get to any area off the channel.

John I will unloading at dam and lock #22 just south of Hanniable. Tom Thanks for the advice. I do respect the power of any river. I grew up on the Mo river and know how to read it. On the Miss I am not scared of it but have all the respect in the world for the power of it. That is why I am asking the questions. I want to know as much as possible before I go. I just love to fish big rivers because everytime you get a bite you might have that 100 plus pound blue:cool2:. That is my goal. Now that I live 65 miles from the dam and lock #22 ramp I will be hitting the river every chance That I can.

Great post Tom. You are primarily fishing one of the pooled sections of the sippi up that way so you won't have near the current at normal levels as we do down in St Louis. By nature of being pooled, you won't see near as many wing dams or weirs, and chevrons an that type of thing. As long as you run by your markers your certiainly safe. I've only run that stretch of the sippi a couple of times and found it to be pretty benighn. You see quite a bit of water skiing and tubing up that way as well so if the river isn't out of it's banks up there you should have just a bit of flow unless your right at the dam. Our stretch down here is the fastest the sippi flows along it's entire length due to the elevation change between Alton and St Genevive. We also have a tremendous amount of barge traffic on our section so the Corp of engineers employs tons of wing dykes an the likes to keep it rippin down here as kutter mentioned. You won't have near the amount of those up that way. Thanks for posting and well look forward to all those great fishing reports up your way.

I have never been on the Miss. River. My question is. Does it have dykes to look for like the Mo river? What do I look out for when under power? I hope to get a chance to go out next week. Any info is appreciated.

Thanks Tom

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Pool #25 has some very old wing dykes. I'm assuming they were there before the L&D system was installed in the late 40s. I've never seen them exposed, they can only be seen on sonar unit or by the slight bulge they cause on the surface of the water. I don't about the pools north of that but if #25 has them I'd guess the others do too.